(The full length of the Lore will be included in the official Roleplay Post, for now it has been shortened down greatly into one or two paragraphs.)

Welcome to Arkus, an intense but fairly new planet riddled with unfathomable beasts and Old Gods that roam the planet; some being entities of benevolence, and some beings of pure unquestionable evil.

Magic in this planet is fairly complex, it was split into 5 segments after magic itself was shattered by an incredibly dark force thousands of years ago, these types are Fel, Aether, Arcane, Null and Mortis. People have adapted around it; but the shattering brought more harm than good... people chose sides, some chose to be faithful and wield the holy powers of Aether, while some decided to wield the destructive forces of Fel. Two sides wage war against each other. Paladins wielded Aether, whilst Warlocks wielded Fel.

Arkus is a fairly expansive planet, holding a total of 6 continents; Aeolus, Mana, Karanos, Anthir, Unik and finally, the dreaded Sornatis. The most populated is Aeolus, a land of lush plains, forests and towering mountains. Cities of both Paladin and Warlock origin are dotted around Aeolus, however, as of the last hundred years, certain areas have turned into a warzone due to the Warlock/Paladin feud. Aeolus does hold it's dark side; The Black Forest has it's grasp on a small region of Aeolus, the horrors that lie in this forest are fortunately kept back by the gargantuan but ruined Wall of Noduz. (More information of the planet will be revealed when the full version has been written & released)

Old Gods are Gods that were once mortal; ascended from their previous fleshy form, there are 18 of them, and they are split into two groups; Good and Evil... the perfect balance between chaos and order. One example from both the Good and Evil sides of the Old Gods will be given. We shall begin with the Good Old God; Astral Strings, his true name has never been revealed, as it said, it's name may be "too complex for mortals to comprehend". Astral Strings is a powerful celestial being not of this world, his own body looks like an expansive star cluster. Astral Strings appears to have no classification of gender, it's voice tone appears to be directly inbetween male and female, unrecognisable by either side. He is a being of pure light, and thus proves the deadliest weapon against the tides of darkness.

Now... onto the dark abyss that is the mind of this twisted Old God, even uttering his name brings a bad omen upon whoever dare say it. Tor'qux. A true testament to how utterly twisted a single mind can be. Before his ascension, he was a King, a child King, the King of the once shining city of Alakuun.. before.. something snapped inside of him, some speculate that a greater evil drove the child King to madness, whilst some say it was the sheer pressure of his position that broke him. Alakuun was the largest city in Arkus at the time, sheltering almost 500,000 citizens in this expansive city, the mad King began the abrupt executions of those he did not see trustworthy, this was only the beginning; as each day passed the amount of deaths grew, and people grew worried... only 3,552 people managed to flee the city before the walls were closed off. The day the gates closed was the day that the massacre began, over the course of 22 days, 491,746 innocent men, women and children were brutally hunted and murdered. Blood flowed through the streets, enough blood to drown a God, 491,746 people, every last one of them was a ritual sacrifice for Tor'qux. He bathed in their blood, and he rose into the air... every last drop of innocent blood was absorbed by this monstrosity. He- no.. IT emerged from the impaled bodies as a new entity, legends say that his first maddening roar echoed for miles on end. Trees began to grow hundreds of feet high, and the density was that of a wheat field. Fortunately the growth of these black trees was halted by the Wall of Noduz.

There are a total of three primary factions to choose from: The Council of the Damned, a new but growing cult of powerful Warlocks, summoning demons and conjuring deadly plagues to dispose of their enemies. Then the Order of the Three Lights, an old group, thousands of years old, they have kept evil at bay for long enough, and now that the Council has emerged, they have a new enemy to annihilate, their numbers are greater than the Council, almost superior in every way. And finally, the mostly-neutral faction, the Blademasters of Karanos, since Karanos is absent of magic entirely, they have adapted greatly, warriors of great stature and power. Some have chosen to fight for the Council, some chose to fight for the Order, and some have chosen to stay where they are, in a neutral position.

Times are changing, the tides of war are turning in the Council's favour, who will you fight for?

NOTE: It is advised you don't create a character right now, seeing that the full Lore hasn't been released, the sheet below is an example.

Character Creation Sheet:

Name

Image or description of your character.

1. Age
2. Race
3. Gender
4. Affiliation
5. Backstory

[Optional]

6. Height
7. Weight
8. Birthday

Greatly Interested.

Interested. Interested. Interested.

I'm in.

I think I'm interested.

I'm interested in being a Demon Hunter.

@ActRaiserTheReturned Hell yeah. :>

He uses technology, like a Medieval Ghost Buster!!

Better start sorting your character(s) out for preparation, the Shadow Harvest begins soon.

Better start sorting your character(s) out for preparation, the Shadow Harvest begins soon.

I'm thinking of a reclusive, elder, lone hero of the blademasters of Karanos. Who used to slay dragons and shiz in his prime, but at age 60 now has severe back pain after killing a small handful of an enemy army.

Go badass grampas!

Could be interested, but the literal good and evil labels are quite a turnoff. No room for moral ambiguity or complexity here?

1. Age
2. Race
3. Gender
4. Affiliation
5. Backstory

Markus
1. 50 years old
2. Human
3. Male
4. The Order Of Three Lights
5. Markus began life many years ago, fifty years ago, which is a lot in his opinion, as one of ten sons to a huge, very prosperous, half uneducated immediate family. He was content to just educate himself in writing, authorship, poems, and philosophy, until half his extended family and less than a quarter of his entire city state was wiped out in under two hours. He was distraught to lose the family's oldest close cousin, and his own father during the attack. The invaders were none other than a tribe of worldly bound demons, who lived three thousand miles away in a remote corner of the countryside. These demons called the Garnaukhs are usually content to only hunt down caravans or at worst a village or small town, which is still horrifying, but they had gathered themselves in number over the years to attempt an assault on the large city state of Raulujia. The King's knights routed them and almost wiped the whole demonic tribe out, but at least they saved the city from being completely over ran.

Markus was discontent, however, and while there were a few hundred demonic creatures left to threaten whomever was unwary enough to travel too deeply into the wilderness, he rose up with two of his brothers Eammon and Rofio, among a handful of war veterans into a team of warriors to seal the caves and imprison the demons inside. In three weeks, they crossed the wilderness and made it into the demonic territory, there they found a warlock and his necromancer assistant working together to conjure life into the demonic corpses left behind. Rofio and Eammon killed the two magicians while Markus ran straight inside the cave. He wasn't armed just with a magical sword and armor however, he came prepared with things that simply aren't seen often in a Medieval Setting. He had constructed his own hand made rifle arm, with enough puncturing and explosive power to shatter through City Walls, and his armor was light and durable, even compared to lacquered leather armor. Markus waded through the demonic horde, easily massacring fifty of them by himself. The other seven men all came in with their strongly enchanted swords and armor, laid waste to the hordes, though not before losing three of the renowned warriors who joined them. Sir James, Sir Kent, and Sir Howard.

Markus has been studying worldly bound demons, vampires, and the horrors of the night for decades, and has superior weapons than most people have in the entire world. He's not just good with a gun though, he's as strong as ten men in their prime, and his blessed swords are also capable of taking down pit fiends in one hit. He's very resistant towards corrupting magic and evil energy, and black magic, but he can repel any such powers of the warlock through no action of his own.

@Dead Cruiser Not all 'Good' Old Gods are truly benevolent, one named Sadhu for example, has caused countless wars over the past few millenia, millions of deaths over the years caused by this Old God. Same goes for the 'Evil' Old Gods, Ko'roth, the original Warlock, the first to ever exist; despite being cruel and terrifying, he's done much good for the world. Tor'qux and Astral Strings were just examples of pure evil, and pure good. Many other Old Gods are aligned inbetween.

Even so, the fact that the gods are evenly split down the middle and are literally labeled as good and evil leaves something of a bad taste in my mouth.

Anyway, I have plans for an order of sorcerers and artificers who dedicate themselves to the creation of mechanical gods, which they then use as weapons in time of great peril to maintain order. Would this be reasonable?

@Dead CruiserWell... we do actually infact have a group that create Artificial Gods, though not entirely mechanical.

Even so, the fact that the gods are evenly split down the middle and are literally labeled as good and evil leaves something of a bad taste in my mouth.

Anyway, I have plans for an order of sorcerers and artificers who dedicate themselves to the creation of mechanical gods, which they then use as weapons in time of great peril to maintain order. Would this be reasonable?

I don't know. Hera was more good than bad but everything she does in myths and tales are wrong. That modern readers know.

interested

I'm interested!

@Dead CruiserWell... we do actually infact have a group that create Artificial Gods, though not entirely mechanical.

Could we work out an arrangement to alter the setting to allow my proposed faction? It's kind of difficult to write something when you don't know what's already in the setting.

<Snipped quote by Dead Cruiser>

I don't know. Hera was more good than bad but everything she does in myths and tales are wrong. That modern readers know.

The difference being that no myth ever went and said, "These are the GOOD GODS. They do GOOD STUFF. These are the EVIL GODS, who do EVIL STUFF." Every classical myth portrayed the gods as realistic, morally-grey humanlike characters, without a designated alignment. As an addendum, if you base all of your references regarding "gods" on classical myth, your viewpoint is painfully narrow.

If there are going to be "good" gods that are evil, and "evil" gods that are good, why bother designating them as either at all? Chaos vs. Order is a bit more of an objective alignment system, with fewer implications.

<Snipped quote by Carnevile>

Could we work out an arrangement to alter the setting to allow my proposed faction? It's kind of difficult to write something when you don't know what's already in the setting.

<Snipped quote by ActRaiserTheReturned>

The difference being that no myth ever went and said, "These are the GOOD GODS. They do GOOD STUFF. These are the EVIL GODS, who do EVIL STUFF." Every classical myth portrayed the gods as realistic, morally-grey humanlike characters, without a designated alignment. As an addendum, if you base all of your references regarding "gods" on classical myth, your viewpoint is painfully narrow.

If there are going to be "good" gods that are evil, and "evil" gods that are good, why bother designating them as either at all? Chaos vs. Order is a bit more of an objective alignment system, with fewer implications.

The Myth of Marduk is different.

Gods and Old Gods are different in this world, the Old Gods are crafted by the Gods, shaped from the deeds and sins they committed in their previous Mortal life. Tor'qux massacred nearly 500,000 people, it's not as if he was going to be a Good Old God. The good ones aren't entirely good, and the evil ones aren't entirely evil.

Plus, this isn't mythology, these Old Gods are very much real; they are alive to keep a balance of Chaos and Order.